CONS:
More expensive than Windows-based netbooks. Media player is very primitive. Clickpad is a bit wonky. No Ethernet or Bluetooth. VGA requires a dongle attachment. File management is hard to grasp. Web Store doesn't have enough apps to make the Chrome OS experience compelling.

The Samsung Chromebook Series 5 ($429.99 list) runs on what Google hopes to be the future of computinga cloud-based operating system that relies entirely on a Web browser. While the Google Chrome operating system has shown promising improvements since its debutstreaming HD video that actually works, better file management, a new media playerit's still a netbook and an overpriced one to boot. Everything is meant to reside in the Cloud, hence the measly 16GB solid-state drive that acts as local storage. There are benefits to doing it this way, including never having to worry about losing files due to a stolen laptop or hard drive crash, and having an operating system that turns on within seconds. Unfortunately, the limitations far outweigh the benefits. Syncing an Apple iPod or iPhone is out of the question, printing (for most printers) requires another computer, and simply finding your way around the OS can be frustrating at timesand the Series 5 is expensive. For about the same price, you can have Windows 7 (and more features) on the Editors' Choice HP Pavilion dm1z.

Design and Features
The Series 5 isn't Samsung's first entry into the 12-inch netbook space; the Samsung NC20 (21GBK) ($550 street, 4 stars) was the first Samsung netbook with a 12-inch screen. The Series 5 has a similar design to the NC20, with a plastic, squarish framewhere they differ is in the lid color: The Series 5 has a white shiny finish, while the NC20 is draped in black. Its design is not as flashy as that of the HP dm1z, and comes off boxier looking than the Asus EeePC 1215N. At 3.2 pounds, it weighs the same as the Asus 1215N and is a bit lighter than the HP dm1z (3.4 pounds).

A 12-inch widescreen is the largest available on a netbook. The display on the Series 5 is brighter than any screen found in its competitors (300 nits, as compared with 200 to 250 nits on most other netbooks) and boasts a 1,280-by-800 resolution (720p) and a 16:10 aspect ratio. The screens on the HP dm1z and Asus 1215N, on the other hand, are wider and come with a resolution of 1,366-by-768 and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The screen on the Series 5 is large enough to accommodate serious spreadsheet and word processing related tasks (as long as it's through Google Docs).

The full-size chiclet keyboard is basically the same as the CR-48Google's original reference design for a Chromebook. It's similar to the Apple MacBook keyboard, except that the tiled keys are raised slightly higher. It's also called a Chrome keyboard because the topmost row of keys consist of Web browser commands (back, forward, refresh, toggle through tabs) instead of the usual Function keys. And the Caps Lock is replaced with a Web Search key (you can change it back to Caps Lock in the settings).

The clickpad, which consists of a wide touchpad and single mouse button, is a bit wonky. There were times when I had to click twice on a link or file before getting the desired response. I found that the better solution would be to use tap-to-click, which isn't enabled by default (you'll have enable it in the Settings tab in Chrome OS). Since it's a lone mouse button, invoking a right-click function requires a two-finger tap or click. Some key combinations I found useful include an image map of keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+Alt+?) and the a list of download files (Ctrl+J).

The Series 5's features are slightly weak compared with other netbooks. It has two USB 2.0 ports, while most other netbooks offer a minimum of three. An Ethernet port and Bluetooth are missing from the Series 5, which is surprising since an Internet connection is absolutely vital to the Chrome OS experience. The Series 5 has Wi-Fi and 3G (via Verizon if you get the 3G version). There's a VGA port, but you'll need to attach a separate dongle (It worked perfectly fine on two test LCDs). There's a 4-in-1 card reader (SD, SDHC, SD, MMC) in the front bezel, and a 1-megapixel webcam is found above the screen, which comes in handy for video-chatting via Google Talk. Samsung put the pair of speakers under the keyboard, which isn't the best place for them, and sound quality reflected that.

Chrome Inside
From a hardware standpoint, there isn't much differentiating the Series 5 from its netbook counterparts, but the software it runs will require some getting used to. It'll look familiar because it's based on Google's Chrome Web browser. Once you log into the system (you'll need to have a registered Gmail account handy), the Chrome-like browser is the only thing you'll see for the duration of your computing experience. You can start Web surfing immediately or launch any number of apps (bought through Google Web Store) every time a new tab is started. Starting a new tab takes you to what's essentially the "desktop." You can see a history of files that were downloaded recently, access Google Docs, or launch pre-loaded apps like the aforesaid Google Docs, Aviary, ScratchPad, and Google Calendar. Whether it's word processing, photo editing, or note taking, anything completed or edited is instantly saved to a remote server (assuming you have a steady Internet connection), or what's referred to as the cloud. There's local storage built into the netbook itself (16GB's worth), but the file manager is primitive and reserved mostly for documents downloaded from the Web.

There have been some improvements since Google debuted Chrome OS in the CR-48. For one, Flash support, particularly high-definition videos from YouTube and Hulu, has reaped the benefits of hardware acceleration. Videos played back smoothly and lag-free for the most part, but I would have liked Chrome OS to default to a better video quality than 360p . You have to manually adjust to a higher quality setting. When I say HD support, I really mean 720p max (1080p videos choked in YouTube).

A new media player is also included with Chrome OS plays back actual video and music files, as opposed to streaming them from a Web-based service like Amazon's Cloud Player, Pandora, Slacker, etc. But it's very primitive and the media files will have to come from an external device, such as a USB storage devices or an SD card (through the 4-in-1 media card slot). Chrome OS recognizes external storage devices almost immediately, and you browse through files and folders like you would with Windows. The media player handled 1080p MP4 video files and most audio formats very well, even those that were encoded at high bit-rates. But it also left out a bunch of video formats: The media player isn't compatible with mpeg, AVI, WMV video files, and certainly not Blu-ray.

Chrome OS will basically recognize any storage-equipped device, save for ones that require synching with proprietary software, like an Apple device with iTunes. It also recognized and worked with many of the mice and external keyboards I tried. External monitors, or at least the two LCDs that I tried, worked with the VGA dongle.

Printing, however, is indicative that the Series 5 isn't ready to fly solo. There are a handful of HP ePrint (WiFi-equipped) printers that'll communicate and work directly with a Chromebook, but most Chromebook users will already have a printer in their homes. This means they'll need to tunnel through another computer that has this printer attached, since direct connections for classic printers aren't supported at this time. The secondary computer has to remain on at all times, have the Chrome browser installed, and signed into the same Gmail account as the Series 5. You'll also have to enable cloud printing in the second computer's Chrome Browser (in the settings menu). Once these condition were met, "cloud" printing worked fine on a USB attached and network printer. The print jobs went through immediately, but the fact remains: Another computer is required, as well as a set of conditions.

Performance
A key performance attribute of the Series 5 (or any Chromebook) is that it takes roughly 5 seconds to cold boot the netbook In contrast, Windows takes about 50 seconds to boot. The lightweight OS and SSD drive are the forces behind the quick boot and resume times. It also doesn't take a lot of power to run what basically amounts to a browser app, which is why a netbook processor has more power than Chrome OS would ever need. The 1.67GHz Intel Atom N570 CPU and 2GB of memory zipped through every task, from doing a large photo render to playing games like Entanglement and Sea Fight. Then again, there aren't many apps in Google's Web Store that can really push these components to their limits. Netbooks like the HP dm1z and Lenovo ThinkPad X120e ($580 direct, 4 stars) sometimes don't have enough power to run both Windows 7 and a complex piece of software.

Unlike the CR-48, which had a removable battery, the Series 5's lithium polymer battery is sealed in by screws. The 61WH battery is bigger than the one found in the HP dm1z (55WH) and Asus 1215N (47WH) and slightly smaller than that of the Lenovo X120e (63WH). Since my usual battery benchmark won't run on anything other than Windows, I used several MP4 movie files ("Social Network," "Black Swan," "The Fighter," and "King's Speech"), from an external hard drive, to run down the battery. The Series 5 lasted through all of them, which amounted to 6 hours 30 minutes of battery life. Web browsing alone while unplugged should easily make it over 8 hours, which is what Samsung is reporting on its Website. By comparison, the best battery score (according to MobileMark 2007) on the Windows side belonged to the HP dm1z (7:08).

Given the time an average user spends on the Web, it would seem to make sense to have an operating system that's rooted there. The Samsung Chromebook Series 5 is certainly a fascinating approach to computing, one that may actually be widely adopted further down the lineway, way down the line. Had it followed the $199 pricing model that Google had originally planned, the lightning fast boot times, never having to worry about losing files to a hard drive crash, and long battery life would have been slam dunk selling points. Unfortunately, Samsung is selling a netbook with an incomplete OS with a higher price tag than netbooks that run on Windows 7, making the Series 5 very difficult to recommend. You're better off with the HP Pavilion dm1z.